The company has concluded the price
challenge for its two solar power supply contracts, Meralco SVP and head of
customer retail services and corporate communications Alfredo Panlilio said in
a recent interview.

Previously, Meralco signed separate
50-MW supply contracts with Solar Philippines Tanauan Corp. and PowerSource
First Bulacan Solar Inc. to diversify its power requirements.

Both solar developers have offered a
price of P5.39 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for a period of 20 years, lower than the
latest solar feed-in tariff (FIT) rate of P8.69 per kwh, once their respective
projects start operation.

Both contracts were subjected to a
price challenge, where only the offer made by Power Source received a
counter-offer from 7 Balboa of Soleq, the solar power arm of Singapore-based
Equis Funds Group Pte Ltd., Panlilio said.

“7 Balboa made an offer of P4.69 per
kwh from P5.39 per kwh. But Power Source decided to match it,” he said.

“Now it’s up for ERC (Energy
Regulatory Commission) approval because we went through the CSP process for
both,” Panlilio said.

Under the CSP policy, distribution
utilities and electric cooperatives are mandated to undertake a bidding before
finalizing power supply agreements with generation companies.

If cleared by the ERC these will be
Meralco’s first renewable energy power supply contracts in its portfolio.

Under the deal, Solar Philippines
will supply 25 MW from solar farms from its solar farms in Tanauan, Batangas
and Naic, Cavite, targeted for completion in February and April 2017,
respectively.

On the other hand, PowerSource is
currently developing a 50-MW solar farm in of San Miguel, Bulacan scheduled for
completion in August 2018.

The original offers made by Solar
Philippines and Power Source are already competitive with other technologies in
terms of pricing, Australia-based International Energy Consultants (IEC)
managing director John Morris said earlier.